Pipelines Or Platforms All In Day’s Work For Greene’s

These days in the Oil Patch, it takes a combination of brains, experience and an uncanny ability to match risks with rewards to be successful. It also helps if you earn yourself a special niche for quality of service.

And that is what Greene’s Energy Group has quietly but effectively accomplished since it began operations as Greene’s Pressure Testing and Rentals, performing hydrostatic testing services in 1953. Formed by H. Rowe Greene, Sr. as a spin-off from Halliburton, Greene’s specialized in testing blowout preventers used in drilling.

By the 1970s, Greene’s was not only performing production tests but was also testing heaters, separators, flowlines and pipelines. The company continued to expand into the testing, flushing and reinstatement of piping, flanges, and valves on production and construction projects. This enabled Greene’s to refurbish offshore drilling rigs, barges, structural production modules and topside production decks for platforms.

Eventually, Greene’s moved to fully integrate its upstream services by expanding into pipelines through buying high-volume pumps and instrumentation. Now Greene’s services land pipelines as well as offshore systems.

In July 2004, Greene's was acquired by The Catalyst Group, a Houston-based private-equity fund, and members of management. In December 2006, Denham Capital Management LP, along with a management group, acquired Greene's from The Catalyst Group. Since that recapitalization, Greene's has expanded into the Rocky Mountain region through its acquisition of Rocky Mountain Testers (RMT) in Marbleton, WY. Greene's recently acquired Cherokee and Devin International Inc., which will expand its equipment-rental offerings in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
The CEO of the integrated service company is well-known industry leader Bob Vilyus who came aboard in 2004 in conjunction with Catalyst purchase. Group headquarters for the company are located in West Houston while the operational headquarters are based in Lafayette, LA.

In an interview, the native Ohioan discussed Greene’s strategy to move forward despite turbulent economic times.
 
P&GJ: What is the main business focus for Greene’s Energy Group today?
Vilyus: Greene’s is a specialized service and rental business that supports the pipeline and oil and gas businesses. Our mission is to set the standard of excellence in safety, services, products and world-class talent. Our vision is rapid growth in our core segments bringing global best practices and exceeding our customers’ expectations.
We have developed a very experienced team of top pipeline, oil and gas service executives and business teams as a foundation for our growth.
We plan to utilize our core business positions to rapidly expand both domestically and internationally, doubling our size in four years.

P&GJ: How is the company segmented operations-wise?
Vilyus: Today Greene’s has five core competencies, which are: